Pamphlets Don't Always Work
by The Draigg
Summary: Ever wonder how the White Fang tries to recruit new members? Well, maybe you'll find out in this quick story, involving Velvet Scarlatina and two random mooks! Check out this one-shot now!


**_Pamphlets Don't Always Work_**

**Yo, readers! I, The Draigg have got another one-shot for all of you to enjoy. More specifically, this one was written for /u/-Falcyon- over at /r/RWBY as part of a fan art/fan fiction exchange thread. He wanted to see the White Fang try to recruit Velvet Scarlatina, and here's the finished product! I hope you enjoy it! Oh, and before we get started, remember that Monty Oum owns RWBY, not I. Now, to the story!**

xxx

The terrorist organization was known for several things. Among them were political assassinations, high-scale thefts, large rallies and riots, and not being afraid to use excessive violence to get what they want.

But, one thing that a lot of the general population didn't know was that they needed more and more fresh recruits.

The thing was, is that there was a… certain number of mortality rates when it came to regular foot soldiers. To be more specific, the mortality rate was incredibly high. In between all the very risky operations the group regularly engaged in, and having several of their base camps hidden deep within the Grimm Wilds, about five in thirty recruits died within their first year of joining. Naturally, this was a rather annoying problem to the White Fang higher-ups. But, they had a plan to get more fresh bodies into uniforms, and into the field.

That's where active recruiters came into the picture. In a 'brilliant' move, as described by one of the high council that made up the White Fang leadership, a bunch of younger recruits that weren't ripped apart by Ursas or shot by Schnee Dust Company security forces were sent to places where young Faunus people we likely to hang out, and attempt to recruit them then and there. After all, they might connect to the hip, young recruits. Plus, if they were in public, they might be more pressured to join up.

Naturally, the plan in reality was not only a massive flop, but a large waste of money too. But, nobody in the lower chain of command dared to tell the high council this, so they kept on trying (and failing) to recruit young Faunus people.

Here's one example of a failed case:

**xxx**

Velvet Scarlatina kind of liked going to the Vale City Central Mall. Normally, she would be terrified of being in and around large groups of people, but strangely enough, it didn't bother her that much when she was here. Maybe it was the idea that here, Velvet would be treated as just another face in the crowd, and not somebody to pick on, like back at Beacon Academy.

Another reason she liked coming here was that the mall had one of the last few dedicated manga shops in the city. After the small hobby shop that carried her favorite stories closed down a little over a year ago, the store at the mall made for a good replacement. She needed to keep up with _Strawberry Mahou Shoujo-chan Panic!_, darn it! She just needed to know if Yumi-chan was going to defeat the Moon Duchy or not! That, and some of the more… ecchi parts weren't all that bad, either.

So, walking out of the manga shop, Velvet found herself humming quietly in her joy.

"Da da, da-da-da, da da DA!" the rabbit Faunus chimed under her breath.

She made her way over to the food court for some lunch. Velvet was feeling rather puckish, and she didn't want to wait until she got back to Beacon to eat something. Plus, it wasn't like eating at Beacon's cafeteria was all that great of an option. Food poisonings were still as common as ever, ever since the budget had been cut further and further. At that rate, the whole student body would be eating cardboard and tile caulking by the end of the year.

Velvet didn't notice the small folding table that she passed by on her way to the food court. And she most certainly didn't notice the two guys wearing white suit with red ties, trying to shove pamphlets in the hands of anyone that looked like a Faunus. It was her luck that she wasn't harassed on her way to get some delicious mall pretzels.

But, unfortunately for her, the two men handing out pamphlets noticed that she had passed them a minute after she walked by. So, abandoning their small table, the two men followed the rabbit Faunus girl.

**xxx**

A few minutes later, after Velvet bought a bunch of large and salty mall pretzels, she sat down at the nearest table. Taking one of her manga books out of her shopping bag, Velvet began to read while simultaneously dumping a ton of mustard on the pretzels. By the time she had read at least ten pages, she realized that she had emptied the entire squeeze bottle onto her lunch. Sighing, Velvet put down the manga and stared at the yellow puddle covering her food. Oh well, she did pay good lien for this. Might as well resign herself to eat it.

Just as Velvet was going to take a bite of thee completely yellow pretzel, a man in a white suit and red tie slid into the chair across from her. Behind him, a similarly dressed man leaned against the back of the chair.

"U-uh h-hello?" Velvet stammered to the man. Internally, she was panicking very hard. Some strange men had shown up at her table, and were looking at her intently? Was she going to be ravished in some back alley? Was she going to get drugged and have her kidneys stolen? Or, worst of all, did they want her to fill out some tax return forms? The horror! She wasn't very good with those at all!

"Hello to you, young lady. I'm Ricky, and that's Clyde," the man said as he gestured to the man behind him. The man in turned waved hello.

Her fear taking hold, Velvet brandished the mustard bottle at the men and squeaked, "D-don't make me d-do this! I-I'll mess y-you up, I swear!"

The two men looked at each other, confused. Then Ricky reached into his coat to pull out something. Of course, Velvet saw this as a hostile action, and tried to squeeze mustard at the man's face. But, in her terror, she had forgotten that she had emptied all of the bottle's contents on her food.

"Eeep!" Velvet squeaked as she realized that her 'weapon' was empty. Throwing the squeeze bottle at Ricky (and missing), she then threw herself under the table to hide from the two men.

Now, Ricky and Clyde were very confused. Was this girl touched in the head or something?

"Hey, ya think this girl is touched in da head or somethin'?" Clyde whispered to his partner.

Ricky shrugged. "I dunno. But, if she is, it could be easy to get her," he pointed out. Then, leaning under the table he tried to face the cowering Velvet.

"Hey, uh, we're not gonna hurt you, or anything. We're just some very concerned Faunus people, is all," the panther Faunus tried to reassure Velvet.

Nervously, Velvet got out from her hiding spot under the table and returned to her chair. But, that didn't stop her from slightly shaking uncontrollably. These men still looked kind of scary. The one named Ricky had his claws partially showing, and the one named Clyde wouldn't stop scratching at the little tufts of fur poking out from under his collar. If Velvet had to guess, he was part fox. And foxes ate rabbits, and so did big cats, given the opportunity. Every part of her rabbit side screamed at her that this wasn't good at all.

"…Anyway," Ricky continued, "I just wanted to hand you this,". He pulled a pamphlet out of his jacket, and handed it to the still shivering Velvet.

With her uneasy hands, Velvet unfolded the hand-out and glanced over it. What it advertised was a free place to live, three meals a day, and the ability to enter your name in a raffle to win, among other things, a forty-inch plasma screen television and a complimentary PlayBox 640.

"A-are you advertising college apartments to me?" Velvet asked.

"Wha? No, no. We, um, work for a group dat's looking for new peoples to join," Clyde explained, still tugging at his collar.

"Oh… like what, exactly?" inquired Velvet.

Ricky and Clyde briefly shared a look, before Ricky tried to lean in closer to whisper to Velvet. But, when she pulled back her head instead, Ricky sat back down in his seat. Clearly, this girl was going to be uncooperative with all of this. Still, it was worth a shot. After all, they hadn't gotten any recruits, and they needed to justify the printing costs for all of those nice pamphlets printed on sweet, glossy paper. Seriously, it cost at least five lien per print out. That shit was expensive.

"We, uh, work for the…" Ricky looked around before muttering, "… the White Fang."

"Oh," Velvet said while nodding her head. It looked like she was agreeing with them. But, inside her mind, she was beginning a count down.

Three..

"Anyway, we're all brothers 'n sisters in arms, right? Ya should come with us," tried to persuade Clyde.

Two…

"Right. We can promise all of that, and more of you just sign up!" Ricky added.

One…

"So, what'd ya say, kid? Wanna join tha winnin' side?" Clyde said, putting a big grin on his face.

One…

"O-okay, hold on, let me ch-check something…" Velvet said as she slowly reached for her bag of manga.

GO!

Once she wrapped her hand around the bag handle, Velvet bolted out of her chair and ran out of the food court. She was more than willing to leave her food behind. Hell, those guys could have it, as far as she was concerned.

"_They were from the White Fang! First they were going to make me kill someone! And then they were gonna kill me! OH MY GODDDDDDDD!_" Velvet internally screamed to herself as she ran straight out of the mall. Yeah, she was definitely done with this place for today.

As for Ricky and Clyde, they stood around confused as they stared at the girl they tried to recruit just randomly run away. Yeah, there was definitely something wrong with that rabbit girl. But, there went probably their best chance all day to actually get someone to become a member of the White Fang. Sure, she may be a little odd, but the pair was willing to take on anyone at this point.

Turning to Ricky, Clyde asked, "So, uh, what now?"

Ricky sighed and smoothed out his long hair. "Well, I guess we ought to get back to the table. Maybe we can catch some fishes there."

"But, that didn't even work! For three hours, ya know?!" Clyde complained.

"Look here," Ricky snapped, "We weren't lucky to get Cassidy and Butch's spot, so stop being a bitch, and get to work! You don't want to get your legs broken, do ya?!"

"No…" Clyde grumbled.

Really, if they completely failed here, that wasn't the worst that could possibly happen to them. After all, all of the money they were given as part of the recruitment budget was blown on all of those glossy pamphlets. They spent over five thousand lien for printing out all the hand outs and renting the spot in the mall they were told to stand at. So, given how they hadn't even got one person to sign up for the White Fang and become a random mook, the fate that would be in store for them would be… unpleasant, to say the least. They would probably get quartered by a few motorcycles, or locked in a giant cage for a fight to the death. But, the worst thing that could be done to them was being tied down to a chair, watching a prostitute strip, get a boner, and have a glass tube shoved up their urethra. Then, once they went flaccid, the tube would break and kill them. So yeah, Ricky and Clyde needed to get some recruits ASAP.

Keeping those ideas in mind, Ricky and Clyde shuffled their way back to their table, hoping to get some recruits and not have their dicks ripped apart from the inside. That was more than enough motivation for them.

And that's why the White Fang was incredibly unsuccessful at recruiting people for the long term.

**xxx**

**You know that glass tube thing is real, right? The Vietcong used to do that to prisoners of war. Horrible stuff, I know. I'm cringing right now just typing about it. But hey, at least you learned something new today! Learning is fun… most of the time. I'm not sure that it could be said for this lesson. Regardless, I hope that you liked this quick little story. It'll help tide you over between bigger stories, hopefully. So, this has been The Draigg, and I'm signing off for now!**


End file.
